Without a warning
by drinkwithmebarricadeboys
Summary: Eponine comes running to Courfeyrac's apartment one night when her parents found her and Gavroche. Courfeyrac starts to care about her more and more, while protecting them. Eponine x Courfeyrac, a modern au, Paris.


**A/N: I wrote this quite a while ago so there will probably be some mistakes... I know there are not many Epfeyrac shippers, but give it a shot, they could be really cute together. Review what you think! I know the end is a little rushed, but I don't remember why I wrote it that way :/ Anyway... enjoy!**

_**Without a warning**_

It's 3 a.m. Courfeyrac was fast asleep even though Les Amis had just held Enjolras' birthday party at his apartement. Enjolras didn't see the point in partying and left early, saying something about classes in the morning while it was saturday.

Suddenly Courf heard someone banging on his door agressively. He thought it must have been Grantaire who locked himself out of his place again, but when he opened the door it was a panicking Éponine with Gavroche on her back.

'Éponine? What's wrong?' He asked

'Our parents, they found us.'

'Shit, did they have Montparnasse with them?'

'No, thank God!' She said, 'If they had, we'd have been dead!'

'Come in before they find you.'

Inside Courf made them all some hot chocolate as Les Amis had drunk all of his coffee. Even being someplace her parents didn't even know excisted didn't calm her down. Gavroche, one the other hand, was very calm but that could also be because it's the middle of the night and he's tired, figured Courfeyrac.

'They'll find us.' said Éponine, 'they'll find us and make us work for them, or they'll kill us.'

'No, Éponine they won't! They underestimate you. Remember? They thought you'd come crawling back to them and it took them four years to find you, I bet they don't think you can run halfway through the city with Gavroche on your back. They'll look somewhere closer to your apartement.' Courf hoped that this would calm her down a little. It did, she finally sat down and took a sip of her hot chocolate. Gavroche was very close to sleeping on the rug on the floor.

'We should take him to bed.' Said Courf as he moved to lift Gavroche off the ground.

'No, I want to keep an eye on him and as I'll be sleeping on the couch, leave him.'

'No, you can sleep in my bedroom and I'll sleep on the couch.'

'I won't take your bed from you.'

'Fine, than you and Gavroche can sleep on the guest mattress.'

'Okay,' she gave in, she was, in fact, very tired from running all the way over here.

The next morning Éponine was awake first after a night that felt like a horrible nightmare, but it wasn't just a nightmare. Thenardier had indeed found her. She was terrified of him but she was even more terrified of Montparnasse, so she had to keep running, she thought. Then Courf fell on her, still asleep. She decided to punch him in the ribs to wake him up.

'Ouch, what the he-. Oh, sorry 'Ponine.'

'Thank you!' She said when he was off her. Then Gavroche woke up.

'Can I have ice-cream as breakfast?' He said, still half asleep.

'Sure' laughed Courfeyrac as he got up to get some.

'Hey, 'Ponine? Can we stay here for a little while?'

'Maybe, I'll have to think about it.'

Courf stepped in the doorstep with a ridiculous towel draped over his arm and a crooked tie around his neck.

'Breakfast is served.' He said in the most posh way he could, trying to make Gavroche laugh. That worked well, Gavroche was laughing so hard Éponine thought he'd wake the neighbors up. She was happy Courf was distracting him from what happened last night. She really needed to think up a plan. She had nothing here, no clothes apart from what she was wearing, no phone, no wallet, she had to leave it all behind in her hurry to get out.

'Éponine, are you coming?' She heard Courfeyrac say

'Yes, on my way.' She yelled back, maybe a little too loud.

When she entered Gavroche was eating a big bowl of ice-cream even though it was only 9 a.m.

'Have you got anything for a normal breakfast?'

'Yes, I have. I have cereals, but I'm out of milk. So, I guess you're gonna have to melt some of that ice-cream.'

'Okay, you know, you could do some grocery shopping every once in a while.'

'Yeah, I know. I really should, especially now I have guests.'

'About that. Can we stay here untill I figure something out.'

'Sure, but I do have classes tomorrow.'

'We can just stay here then.'

Gavroche had followed the entire conversation and was all too happy to stay at Courfeyrac's place.

'Oh, but 'Ponine, we do have a meeting tonight and I don't really wanna leave you here alone.'

'We'll come with you then. Where is it?'

'Café Musain'

Éponine was glad she wouldn't be alone with Gavroche again for a while.

That evening Éponine was in deep thought, so deep that it took Courfeyrac ten minutes to get her to put on her coat so they could leave. On their way to the café Éponine couldn't help but be very anxious when they turned corners or even when they were just walking straight ahead.

'Here it is.' Said Courfeyrac and she realised she was holding on to him very tight. He didn't seem to care that the bloodflow in his arm had temporarily stopped, he only seemed to care about her and Gavroche, who had already gone inside as he was very curious to hear what Les Amis were discussing today.

When she walked in the guys were first too busy to notice her but as soon as they did they were throwing question at her from every angle:

'What are you doing here?'

'What happened?'

'Why aren't you home?'

She just started to feel overcome when Courfeyrac saved her from having to answer all their questions.

'Her parents found her and Gavroche so they're staying with me for a while.'

'What? Your parents found you?' Marius was the first one to be able to speak again.

'Yes, they did, so I ran away, with Gavroche.'

'Can we go back to the meeting now?' A very annoyed Enjolras said to Éponine's relieve.

Suddenly Éponine didn't feel so relieved anymore, she turned around and saw Thenardier standing in the doorway, she could see of his stance that he was carrying a gun. She didn't hesitate to get Gavroche off the barstool and then they ran across the café to where the boys were having their meeting.

'He's here.' She said to Courfeyrac. Why to him? She didn't know, before she would've gone to Marius first.

'Who's here? Thenardier?'

'Yes, he has a gun.'

'Guys, we need to get Thenardier out of here, he has a gun.' He decided to take control. 'Grantaire, you get him outside. Bahorel, Enjolras, once he's outside you take his gun away, do whatever it takes you can even punch him knock out, if necessary, we don't want Montparnasse involved.

'And what will you do?' Grantaire asked

'We'll keep every one else inside, as long as you're busy.'

Éponine was trembling, he noticed as soon as he looked at her again so he pulled her into a tight hug and just held her untill the guys were done.

Grantaire walked up to Thenardier:

'You look like you've had a rough day. Want a drink, a smoke?'

'Smoke.'

'Outside.' Musichetta, the owner of the café, said.

'Okay, okay,' Grantaire replied. They went outside and Grantaire handed Thenardier a cigarette. As soon as he took it Bahorel hit him on the back of the head with one of the terrace chairs.

'Good hit, but it wasn't necessary yet.'

'So, it's better to prevent than have to fight it.'

'Yeah, I guess so.' Grantaire went back inside while Enjolras and Bahorel were dragging the unconcious Thenardier away from the café, before they left they took his gun with them.

Inside everyting had calmed down, Éponine was feeling better, Jehan had calmed down as he had panicked as soon as he heard the words 'Thenardier' and 'gun' in one sentence and everyone else in the café hadn't noticed anything. Éponine began to wonder why it had felt so good to be held by Courfeyrac. Yes, he was strong, yes, he was very sweet, but they were just friends. Right?

'Éponine? Can we go back now?' Gavroche asked, a little shaken from what happened but he did his best to hide it.

Enjolras gave them a ride to Courf's appartement as Thenardier had probably woken up by then and it was a very long walk.

'Courf, do you mind if I sleep in your bed tonight? I don't feel like getting squished again.'

'Sure, but can I use my bed as well?'

'Of course you can, I'll just sleep in the sleeping bag I was in yesterday.'

'Okay, let's go to bed, I have class very early.'

Éponine woke up in the middle of the night, because she had managed to kick her sleeping bag away. She was too tired to get it back so she decided to share Courf's blanket. As soon as she had crawled under the blanket Courf pulled her into a tight hug in his sleep. She was surprised to find that she liked lying in this position.

That morning Gavroche woke them up by jumping on the bed.

'Courf, Courf, your alarm has gone five times already!'

Éponine woke up to see she was still in a tight hug with Courfeyrac. He was awake now too and didn't seem to want to let go of her, but then he realised he had class and jumped out of bed.

'You should come with me, Thenardier could find you and I'm guessing that after last night he'll have Monstparnasse with him. I don't want you to be in any danger.'

'He could come to the university just as well.'

'Yes, but he's not that stupid. He won't shoot on a full campus.'

Meanwhile Courf had gotten dressed and left some woman's clothes for her. They probably used to belong to one of his flings who'd counted on a weekend here but left without her stuff. She put them on anyway as her own clothes were filthy from wearing them three days straight.

'Okay, we'll come with you, but someone has to keep an eye on Gavroche the whole day.'

'Then I need to check Les Amis' shedules. But I think we can work it out, Grantaire won't mind skipping a class or two.'

'Thanks'

Courf was right about Grantaire, he hung out with Gavroche the entire day while Éponine explored the campus, she'd occasionally walk in to some of Les Amis and talk but she didn't do much else. This changed, however, when Courf, looking quite panicked, came to get them.

'Montparnasse is here,' he said, 'we're going to Bahorel's apartment tonight.'

'What, Montparnasse?'

'Yes, Montparnasse, now we have to hurry.'

Once at Bahorel's apartment Éponine cracked, she started crying uncontrollably. She didn't know why she was suddenly crying, she never did. Courf and Gavroche were startled by her sudden change in behaviour. Courf thought the tention of the last few days had been too much for her to handle so he carried her to Bahorel's guest bedroom. When he put her down on the bed and wanted to go she didn't let go of him. They sat there for hours untill Courfeyrac realised she had fallen asleep. He took Gavroche to bed and thanked Bahorel agian for letting them stay there. He crawled in bed next to Éponine, why he didn't know. There was one bed left as Gavroche was sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

When they woke the next morning it was because Les Amis had decided to wake Bahorel up, not knowing they were there as well. Éponine groaned when Grantaire started singing a drinkingsong very loudly. Courf felt her stirring in his arms and he noticed she was very warm, too warm.

'Guys, something's wrong with Éponine.' He shouted.

Marius burst through the door, saw Éponine's face and immediately went to get Joly from the living room.

'What's wrong?' He asked when he entered

'She's very weak and has a high fever.'

Joly told Courfeyrac to get away from her so he could do his work. He took her pulse and listened to her breating. She had gone unconcious during all this and her pulse and breathing were not good.

'Someone call an ambulance,' Joly yelled, 'she needs to go to the hospital a quickly as she can.'

These words were enough to make Courf, who was trying to calm Gavroche, crack. He ran towards her and held her tight. 'I love you.' He said to her. He held her for a few minutes and then she had to be put on the ambulance. Courf insisted he had to come with her in the ambulance but they were taking Joly as he had medical knowledge and wasn't panicking.

Marius gave Courfeyrac a ride to the hospital. At the hospital it had already been established that she'd been poisoned by a slow-working poison.

'Poison, how?' Marius asked, not expecting to get an answer.

'Thenardier. I saw him talking to the new barista in café Musain, before I realised it was Thenardier.'

'I still don't see how he poisoned her.'

'He gave the barista something to put in Éponine's drink.' Said Courf, very irritated with Marius at the moment, couldn't he have chosen a different moment to be oblivious, 'I'm going to Thenardier's hotel and I'm gonna beat the living crap out of him!'

'Don't go alone then, take Bahorel and Enjolras. And wait untill she's better.'

As if on cue, Joly came up to them and said they could go see her.

'Ponine!'

'Courf?' She said with a voice that sounded so fragile it couldn't truly be hers.

'Yes, I'm here.'

'Do you know who did it? Who did this to me?'

'Thenardier.' He said, not wanting to but also not being able to say no to her, not with her in this condition. 'I'm going to him, tonight, with Bahorel and Enjolras.'

'No, Montparnasse could be there!'

'No, he can't. He's in jail. They caught him on campus with a gun, the bail is too high for any of the gang to pay. Even when they put all their money together.' Marius interfered.

'Then I'll definately go.'

'Okay, but make sure you leave no area of him without at least a little bruising.'

'I love you.' Courf said without thinking.

'I love you too.' She said to his surprise. He kissed her on the forehead and went to get Bahorel and Enjolras.

They were at Thenardier's hotel. It wasn't busy which was their luck, less chance of witnesses. They went in and demanded to see Thenardier. Once he came to them, they dragged him outside, into an alley and started beating him up. Courfeyrac had never been this agressive in his life.

'Why did you poison her? Huh, why would you poison your own daughter?'

'I needed to get rid of her.'

'Why?' He demanded and kicked him in the stomach.

'She was getting in the way of our plans with Gavroche.'

'Plans with Gavroche? What a sick mind you are!'

'She's filing for custody.' Enjolras said.

'See, that's why we had to get rid of her.'

'Too bad she's not dying and she'll get Gavroche and you'll have no right whatsoever to come get him, or her.'

Courf kicked him in the guts one more time, spat on his face and then they left. The streets were quiet which meant that no one had seen or heard anything they had done.

When they got back to the hospital Éponine was doing much better. She sounded like herself again and was sitting upright in the bed. When she saw Courf she smiled widely. He came to sit next to her on the bed and explained why Thenardier had done this to her. He and Gavroche were allowed to stay for the night and the next afternoon already she was allowed to go home. That night Les Amis were having a meeting but Courf wasn't going. Marius picked up Gavroche so they would have the evening to themselves. They talked for hours, then kissed for a while and then they locked themselves into the bedroom untill there was a knock on the door and Courf had to go get it. He quickly put on his pyama pants and his bathrobe and went to the door. It was Marius taking Gavroche back.

'Looks like you've been having fun.'

'Shut up.'

'See you tomorrow.'

'Bye Marius.'

Meanwhile Éponine had put on some other woman's pyamas. Probably one that was left behind by one of his many past flings. He had a feeling that this was no fling but that it would last for a long time.

A year later Éponine has custody of Gavroche, Thanardier and Montparnasse have been convicted to five years in jail and Courfeyrac is ring-shopping with Marius.

'This is perfect for 'Ponine.'

'How about this for Cosette?'

That evening they went to dinner in a very fancy restaurant where both Courfeyrac and Marius proposed.

'Yes'

'Yes' it sounded in the restaurant. They were applauded by all the guests and Éponine felt herself blushing. Cosette, however didn't blush at all.

Six months later it's the big day, a beautifull summer day in June. Éponine was given away by Musichetta and Cosette by her father. 'I do' was heard four times and it was time to party in café Musain, where the barista who'd poisoned had been fired and beautiful decorations had been put up. Éponine and Cosette gave each other a big hug 'Ponine in her short fairy dress and Cosette in her long princess dress.

'Can I have this dance?' Courf asked 'Ponine

'Of course.' They started a clumsy slowdance while Cosette and Marius were gracefully dancing a walz. They didn't mind each others inability to dance, they didn't need to be good. That's what made them work, they didn't pressure each other.

They gave Gavroche a long goodbye hug, then gave him to Joly to take care of him for two weeks while they were on their honeymoon. 'Bye, see you in two weeks.'

'Have fun!' He said, 'You know I'd love to become an uncle.' He added with a big smile. She tapped him on his nose and said, 'Well, you're enough of a care for now but maybe somewhere in the future.' Then they left.


End file.
